Rare white bison born in Yellowstone fulfills Native American prophecy

A rare white bison was born in Yellowstone National Park, fulfilling a Native American prophecy of coming prosperity, tribal leaders said.

Montana-based photographer Erin Braaten discovered the calf shortly after its June 4 birth in the Lamar Valley, with the photos showing the little animal taking its first steps alongside its dark brown family.

“I look and it’s this white buffalo calf. And I was totally, totally stunned,” Braaten told the AP.

Chief Arvol Looking Horse – the spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Oyate tribes in South Dakota – said the birth of the calf marked the return of a spirit of prosperity similar to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Horse said a 2,000-year-old legend describes a “white buffalo calf woman” who appeared before the Lakota at a time when food was running out and bison were disappearing.

According to the story, the woman presented the tribe with a pipe and a bundle, teaching them a prayer and telling them that the pipe would lead the buffalo to them for sustenance.

When the spirit left, she transformed into a white buffalo, telling the journey that when times are hard again, she “will return and stand on the earth like a white buffalo calf, with a black nose, with black eyes black, with black hooves,” Horse said.

Horse is currently the 19th keeper of the pipe and bundle provided by the White Buffalo Calf Woman.

Troy Heinert, executive director of the InterTribal Buffalo Council, echoed the sacred nature of the white bison, noting that the calf seen in Braaten’s photos matches descriptions he has heard in his tribe and not those of an albino buffalo, which sports pink. eyes.

“From the photos I’ve seen, this calf appears to have these traits,” Heinert said, adding that a white buffalo is revered by more tribes than the Lakota.

Native American leaders in the area said a ceremony would be held June 26 at the Buffalo Field Campaign headquarters in West Yellowstone to celebrate the birth of the calf.

It’s unclear exactly how many white buffalo are born, because park officials and bison experts don’t track such a statistic.

The National Park Service last announced the birth of a white buffalo calf, named Miracle, in 1994 on a Wisconsin farm, saying it was the first such birth since 1933.

With post wires.